DIY – Vintage Book Bag

My latest DIY was inspired by some of those beautiful Olympia Le Tan embroidered book cover clutch bags. While I am a fan of embroidery, it is a skill I have not yet dared to schedule into my overly ambitious craft plans. One of these plans was to try and make a bag out of a book. I had seen a few versions online before, but hadn’t seen a design I liked the look of so wanted to make one.

For my attempt I used a leather bound book of poems that had been rejected for crime novels and celebrity biographies in my local charity shop. While I felt a bit like I was performing horrible murder cutting the pages out, I feel it has given another form of life for the book. I found a scrap of waxed linen in a papery off white, and it gave the bag good structure, which was what I was after.

I am really tempted to make a few more of these, there are so many lovely ignored books in charity shops. We’ll see what time I have, because I am also working of the beginnings of an online shop. I am really excited about this idea, it is something I have wanted to do. But we shall see!